Labour councillor asks Sadiq Khan to come to knife crime protest

LONDON Mayor Sadiq Khan has been asked directly to come to the ‘silent march’ protest in the wake of the Camden murders.

A month on from the borough’s bloodiest night of knife violence which saw two young men killed, Mr Khan has still yet to visit the affected communities, despite pleas for him to come and hear concerns on the ground. He has since sent his unelected deputy Sophie Linden to visit Queen’s Crescent.

Worried residents and relatives of one of the victims have already asked for Mr Khan, as the city’s leading politician with a direct influence over policing, to make an appearance; a call backed by the New Journal. Comparisons have been made with the swift arrival of leading politicians at the scene of other major crimes. In the case of the Camden murders, police are investigating the possibility that the same killers struck twice in little more than an hour across Kentish Town and Queen’s Crescent.

Although no Labour councillor had joined the request for a visit last week, it is understood council leader Georgia Gould and cabinet councillor Abdul Hai has now flagged up the idea directly with Mr Khan.

“I have heard that people think it would be good for him to come – and I have sent on the concerns of the community,” said Cllr Hai. “Hopefully we will have a positive outcome.”

Abdul Hai

The march will leave Queen’s Crescent at 4.30pm on Thursday (March 22) and make its way to Harrington Square, Mornington Crescent, where there will be speeches from campaigners. The National Education Union have helped organise the demonstration.

Hundreds are expected to join what promises to be a powerful vigil following. Abdikarim Hassan, 17, and Sadiq Aadam Mohamed, 20, were stabbed to death within little more than an hour of each other, in Kentish Town and Queen’s Crescent three weeks ago. On the same night, a teenager almost died in an attack in Somers Town. In the case of Mr Aadam Mohamed, his death was the third knife murder to hit a single family; his brother Mohamed was killed in Mornington Crescent in September, and his cousin, also called Mohamed, died from a stab wound in 2013.

The stabbings came just a few days after Lewis Blackman, a popular 19-year-old from Kentish Town, had been stabbed to death on a night out in west London.